Senior Speech And Language Therapist

Position: Senior Speech and Language Therapist

Contract: Permanent

Hours: 17.5 hours per week

Salary range: HSE Consolidated pay-scale 1stAugust 2025

Reporting to: Speech and Language Manager

Organisational Context

Clontarf Hospital is a 160-bed voluntary hospital providing rehabilitation services under Section 38 of the Health Act 2004 for Adults and Older Persons. At Clontarf Hospital, our committed, expert and compassionate staff provide excellent care to our patients on their rehabilitation journey. Our goal is to work in partnership with patients, providing care that is tailored to their unique needs, to facilitate a swift and successful recovery, empowering them to go home with supports if needed. The patient pathways include:

• Orthopaedic Rehabilitation
• Older Persons Rehabilitation
• Step-up and hospital avoidance pathways for the ICPOP Team
• Specialist Rehabilitation Services including neuro-rehabilitation
• Rehabilitation after Trauma

The hospital has close links with our local acute hospitals (Mater and Beaumont) and our community partners.

ESSENTIAL:

· A recognised qualification in Speech & Language Therapy approved by the CORU, the regulatory body.

· A post qualification certificate (or equivalent undertaken at undergraduate level) and experience in working with people with dysphagia

· A minimum of three years post-qualification experience in a Hospital Setting.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

The successful candidate will carry out the following duties. Please note this list is not exhaustive and additional duties may be required but will be discussed in detail with the line manager.

CLINICAL & PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES

· To provide a comprehensive service for people referred from relevant consultants and others.

· Whenever possible to work in partnership with those referred to the service with regard to assessment and management of communication and swallowing difficulties related to their condition and where appropriate their family and significant others.

· To collaborate with Multidisciplinary team colleagues in relation to patient care as required.

· To collaborate and liaise with other hospitals and Primary care HSE SLTs to ensure a comprehensive service for all patients referred to the service.

· To maintain close liaison with all relevant personnel with the objective of providing a quality SLT service that responds to the needs, priorities, concerns and safety of the individual.

· To work with SLT/Rehabilitation Assistants where appropriate and to provide support and supervision as required.

· To develop and maintain expertise in issues relating to communication and swallowing relevant to people who access the service and to ensure that professional standards are maintained.

· In conjunction with other SLTs, to provide a service to other patient groups as agreed.

MANAGERIAL RESPONSIBILITIES

· To be responsible for the day to day operational management of their own caseload and to complete appropriate operational management tasks as assigned by the SLT Manager.

· To be responsible for the supervision of SLT staff as assigned by the SLT Manager.

· To participate and be involved in the planning and development of all services for older persons and to ensure that it meets the needs of patients.

· To be involved in Quality Improvement to include involvement in the planning of the overall service incorporating the setting and implementation of short- and long-term objectives.

· To liaise with statutory, voluntary and other external agencies as appropriate.

EDUCATIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES

· To be actively involved in the education of all staff and other relevant people on ways to promote safe swallowing and on making interactions, documents and environments accessible for people with communication disability.

· To attend in-service training and journal club meetings as appropriate.

· To be involved in research projects as appropriate.

· To maintain continuous professional development.

· Manage, participate and play a key role in the practice education of student therapists. Take part in teaching / training / supervision of other Speech and Language Therapy and non-Speech and Language Therapy staff / students and attend practice educator courses as/if appropriate.

ADMINISTRATIVE RESPONSIBILITIES

· To maintain patient records within HSE and departmental standards.

· To co-operate with data collection systems and current administrative procedures.

· To attend staff and other relevant meetings.

HEALTH

· A candidate for and any person holding the office must be fully competent and capable of undertaking the duties attached to the office and be in a state of health such as would indicate a reasonable prospect of ability to render regular and efficient service.

CHARACTER

· Each candidate for and any person holding the office must be of good character

AGE

· Age restrictions shall only apply to a candidate where he/she is not classified as a new entrant (within the meaning of the Public Service Superannuation Act, 2004). A candidate who is not classified as a new entrant must be under 65 years of age.

OTHER REQUIREMENTS SPECIFIC TO THE POST

The post holder may be required to perform other duties as appropriate to the post, which may be assigned to him/her from time to time, and to contribute to the development of the post while in office.

This job description will be subject to review in the light of changing circumstances.

It is not intended to be exhaustive but should be regarded as providing guidelines within which individuals work.

The duties and responsibilities detailed above reflect the present service requirements and may be subject to review and amendment to meet the changing needs of the service.

Short listing may be carried out on the basis of information supplied in your Application Form. The criteria for short listing are based on the requirements of the post as outlined in the ‘eligibility criteria’ and ‘skills, competencies and/or knowledge section of this job specification. Therefore, it is very important that all experience is outlined in light of those requirements. Failure to include information regarding these requirements may result in you not being called forward to the next stage of the selection process.

Please note this competition can be closed early in the event of large volume of applicants.